After a single student staged a protest accusing the government of having blood on its hands due to a spate of executions in the city-state, the top university in Singapore was prompted to delete a brief segment of live-broadcast footage from a graduation ceremony.
On July 6, Luke Levy, a graduate of the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a bachelor's degree in social science, retrieved a message from his graduation robe "Abolish the death penalty. No to state murder. End poverty, not life. Blood on your hands", holding it as he walked to accept his scroll.
"It was at this time that Kalwant Singh made his final request for his life before to his execution. I felt uneasy with the contradiction of being honored by a governmental institution that was about to murder two individuals the next day "He wrote about the protest that was televised live but afterwards edited out of the recorded film.
Such demonstrations are uncommon in Singapore, where the PAP government has minimal tolerance for dissenting viewpoints.
Kalwant, a 31-year-old Malaysian from Cameron Highlands, Pahang, was killed with Singaporean Norasharee Gous on July 7, a day after his final request for a stay of execution was denied by a Singapore court.
The National Union of Students (NUS) edited Luke's demonstration footage by removing the live recording and reuploading the two-hour movie sans his time on stage — an act that Luke described as "the most apparent jump cut."
The attempt to suppress him proceeded with the photo studio editing his official graduation photo to conceal the text on the protest sign he was holding.
"You can still make out certain words, so thank heavens they didn't do a very good job," he said.
"NUS (together with others) made the initiative to remove the sign. To eradicate the message's existence. To pretend that no one who studied there holds these beliefs and is doing action in response. To claim "all is OK" by withholding something unsettling to their establishment "he said.
Luke stated that by attempting to suppress him, NUS was sustaining power systems "that ignore, exploit, turn people against one another, and murder."
"In the end, they are an institution with state links. They do not dare oppose what affords them academic authority."
He described his protest as a "little deed" that he hoped would encourage people to take a position against violence and for "those disproportionately affected by the death sentence."
"I offered Kalwant my spot on stage. Regarding Norasharee. To those now on execution row. To those who have been executed. A modest, A4-sized disturbance to realize that even taking the stage is a luxury founded on a system of violence that oppresses the majority of the population "Luke wrote about his solitary protest.
In contrast to Malaysia, which recently declared it would repeal the obligatory death penalty for drug offenses and others following a moratorium on executions, Singapore's government has frequently referred to its strict laws as a deterrence against drug crimes.
A growing number of opponents within and beyond the city-state have pointed out that many of those convicted are drug mules from impoverished backgrounds, but the drug lords who hire them are frequently not prosecuted.
This was emphasized by British aviation magnate Richard Branson in his open letter to Singapore President Halimah Yacob last year, in which he pleaded for the life of Malaysian Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, who was executed on April 27 despite having a low IQ, which would make his execution illegal under international treaties and Singapore's own constitution.
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